By CAMERON BOON
WEBSTER, NY — The most hits in a game Armando Valentin (Benedict) has had all season coming into Tuesday night’s affair with the Geneva Twins was three. His game-high for RBI in a game was two.
Valentin broke the former and tied the latter with a 4-for-5 performance, driving in a pair of runs and delivering a huge 7-1 victory for his Rochester Ridgemen in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Basket Road Field.
The win ended Geneva’s nine-game winning streak.
“It’s good to see and good for his confidence,” Ridgemen head coach Joe Shallenberger said. “He had some good swings and was looking for fastballs and turned on them.”
Valentin singled to left-center in the first, doubled down the right field line in the third, singled to center in the fourth and then another single to left in the fifth. He would have been 5-for-5 if it had not been for a great backhand stop in the hole at short by Kenny Reckart (Wooster) to throw Valentin out in the eighth.
The Benedict College attendee drove in runs in the first and third with his singles, and scored after his leadoff two-bagger in the second, accounting for three of Rochester’s seven runs on the day.
His RBI in the first drove in the second of four runs in the inning, as the Ridgemen pounced, albeit patiently, on Geneva starter James Colgan (Alvernia).
The Twins starter walked five in the inning, including the first three batters he saw, and Geneva’s defense behind him accounted for two errors in what was a sloppy first.
“If people are going to give us walks, we’ll take advantage of it and hopefully get a hit in there and get some runs out of it,” Shallenberger said.
Colin Winn (Santa Ana) walked and later scored on a Dan Koller (Thiel) throwing error down to second base. Ryan O’Hearn (Hillsdale) advanced to third on that error after drawing a walk and later scored on Valentin’s single.
The third straight walk, courtesy of Alex Stack (U of Dallas), touched home when Tim Gurnow (Southwest Baptist) drew a bases-loaded free pass.
Shane Soria (Westmont) hit into a fielder’s choice, scoring the fourth and final run of the inning and 28 minutes after it started, the first inning was over and Rochester was in control up 4-0.
The Ridgemen proceeded to add one in the next three innings, with Valentin accounting for two of the three before Nick Jensen (Grays Harbor) settled in and earned the victory.
“It feels great knowing that I have run support and a great defense behind me,” Jensen said. “That early run support really helps.”
In the second, it was O’Hearn doing the bulk of the work, getting on base with a one-out walk. He then stole second and third base before coming home on Stack’s RBI groundout.
Valentin scored the run in the third, coming home on a wild pitch after Soria’s sacrifice bunt moved him up to third base.
Colgan did not last past the third, allowing three hits and walking a season-high eight batters, nearly doubling his season total of 13 coming into the game.
It was Valentin accounting for the RBI in the fourth off Twins reliever Ben Wood (Pamona-Pitzer), driving home Stack to make it 7-0 Ridgemen, who worked a one-out walk to get on base.
“The guys were getting key hits tonight so it was really fun to watch,” Shallenberger said.
Wood ended up doing a really good job keeping the Ridgemen at bay after this, striking out five of his eight in his final three innings of work and, more importantly, keeping Rochester off the board.
The only bat that was a threat on the night was the one of the ever-dangerous Connor Simonetti (Kent State), as he roped a lead-off triple to dead center, which stands at 408 feet from home plate.
He would not score and would be left on base, one of 10 Twins baserunners left on in the game.
After Jensen left through 7.1 innings, Luke Brown (Rollins) came on and finished the deal, allowing an RBI triple, but other than that keeping the Twins off the board with a pair of strikeouts.
The Ridgemen and Twins are back at it Wednesday, taking the field for a twinbill at McDonough Park. Game one is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m.
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